For an explanation of how we determined our Top 50 albums of 2012 (and for a look at albums 75 to 51), see our first post in the series, Top Albums of 2012, 75 to 51.

. . .

10. Samothrace – Reverence to Stone

Samothrace gave us only two songs on their follow-up to 2008’s Life’s Trade. Long songs, still, at 14 and 20 minutes, but frustratingly short after a 4-year wait. We know there’s more, a lot more, that they could give us, but their restraint and our yearning makes their atmospheric doom all the more precious. Bassist Dylan Desmond’s other project, Bell Witch, is similarly satisfying, with only bass, drums, and vocals. — Vanessa Salvia

. . .

Samothrace – “When We Emerged”

. . .

9. Winterfylleth – Threnody of Triumph

Winterfylleth’s Anglo-Saxon black metal is far too mournful to count as folk metal, but more focused on deeds of history than the average black metal band. As a result, their conceptual identity has been hard to pin down until now. Here, they recast themselves as bards of lost Albion, playing droning black metal not for past glories but for a place that never was. The sound is deep and cavernous, like winds across the empty moors of a forgotten England, and the result is one of the best English black metal albums of recent memory. — Rhys Williams

. . .

Winterfylleth – “The Glorious Pain”

. . .

8. Atriarch – Ritual of Passing

Atriarch’s Ritual of Passing often sounds like a call to arms—an impassioned plea for change on the societal level that vocalist and self-proclaimed anarchist Lenny Smith has previously said (much more eloquently than I am here) necessitates a dismantling of the powers that be and a rethinking of how we treat and relate to one another. Smith screams, wails, and ominously speaks his message across seven incredible tracks, from the sludgy, chugging deathrock opener “Parasite” to the psych-drenched and shapeless “Outro”. If Ritual of Passing is a manifesto, I became a follower at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn in November when Atriarch entranced the crowd, Smith menacingly (those eyes!) belting out his lyrics while the rest of the band effortlessly moved from blackened doom to headbanging rock. — Wyatt Marshall

. . .

Atriarch – “Parasite”

. . .

7. Mutilation Rites – I Am Legion

While Brooklyn’s Mutilation Rites are black through and through, they let enough space in for a serious thrash attack, with a crusty scab bleeding through now and then. I Am Legion is revised and re-recorded versions of previous songs, so it’s short—three tracks clock in at only 17 minutes on a one-sided 12-inch. Dose yourself with punk whiplashed black metal and build up your tolerance for the next round of Rites. — Vanessa Salvia

. . .

Mutilation Rites – “Terrestrial Hell”

. . .

6. Pig Destroyer – Book Burner

Did anyone doubt that this would rule? Five years is a lot of silence to endure for a half-hour of grindcore, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone being bummed about the follow-up to 2007’s genre-defying/defining Phantom Limb. Book Burner is just as good, only leaner, meaner and considerably more unhinged. — Brad Sanders

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Pig Destroyer – “The Burning Palm”

. . .

5. Dawnbringer – Into the Lair of the Sun God

Perhaps years of writing Nachtmystium lyrics left Chris Black weary of playing the villain or the victim. On his second LP with Profound Lore, Black celebrates the archetypal hero, in all of his glory and his naivete. Into the Lair of the Sun God is a multifaceted gem, and functions as much a single suite as a collection of great songs. Black has written the first great rock opera of the 2010’s. — Joseph Schafer

. . .

Dawnbringer – “IV”

. . .

4 High On Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis

Everything came together for High on Fire this time. The songs had enough hooks to stick, but not enough to disturb the signature turbulence. The production was clear, but not too clear. Every song could be someone’s favorite on the album. With all the little details in place, the big picture emerged bigger than ever: blood, thunder, earth, smoke, and, yes, fire. Years of pushing the Wheel of Pain have made this sonic Conan unbeatable. — Alan Smith

. . .

High on Fire – “Serums of Liao”

. . .

3. Krallice – Years Past Matter

I don’t think it’s possible for me to gush any more about YPM than previous, so I’ll defer to myself from earlier this year: “Years Past Matter further solidifies a sound so singular and realized from Krallice that it renders their competition unlistenable, or unable to compete at the very least. Despite their prolific decimation, they manage to inspire rather than discourage, joining the ranks of artists who’ve historically set the bar for others to better.” — Aaron Maltz

. . .

Krallice – “IIIIIIII”

. . .

2. Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind

Converge has come a long way in the eyes of the metal community: once a metalcore interloper and bugbear, now a consensus critical darling. This perennial IO favorite has mellowed a touch with age (22 years!), but they still shred, and their songs dart right through that chink in your armor and into your guts. All We Love We Leave Behind continues Converge’s unimpeachable post-2000 run. Here’s to 22 more years. — Doug Moore

. . .

Converge – “All We Love We Leave Behind”

. . .

1. Pallbearer – Sorrow & Extinction

This unassuming Little Rock four-piece quickly became 2012’s biggest metal success story, and for good reason. Sorrow and Extinction is a masterful piece of doomed art, a testament to both the grand traditions of the old guard — Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Pagan Altar — and the genre’s boundless potential for improvement, progression, and desolation. Pallbearer’s debut is steeped in sorrow, in hopelessness, in dead-end jobs, Southern melancholia, and darkened days. Wreathed in a luminous guitar tone, the riffs gasp and crawl, shuddering along beneath Brett Campbell’s soaring, startlingly evocative voice and breathing new life into old ways. It’s a doom album for the ages; grief is universal, and no band has managed to capture and distill its pure essence the way Pallbearer have done so effortlessly. This is their redemption. — Kim Kelly

good list, 1,2,5 and 7 very much so, rest not so much my thing. but all in all a good list. that converge record took me by surprise, i did not care much for their last one at all and this one’s just a ripper. also glad to see dawnbringer high up on the list.

Carm

Posted December 28, 2012 at 7:51 AM

I had Martyrdod in my list but it never made the cut. Some albums I picked that never made the cut were Witchrist, Column of Heaven, Undergang, Deiphago, Wrathprayer, Pseudogod, and Radioactive Vomit. Crust and war metal aren’t definitely that big in these parts.

Now I’m fiending for that Diocletian 2012 European tour EP where they covered Anti Cimex and Doom, any Euros out there who have it, let a brother now!

Teo

Posted December 28, 2012 at 6:12 AM

the tragedy record sucked pretty bad. if i didn’t know it was them, i would have thought it was straight up decibel/pitchforkcore.

@TheWolf I’m surprised that the God Seed album didn’t make our list, as it was very good.

As for Angel Witch, you’ve read IO for long enough that it shouldn’t surprise you that it didn’t make the cut. NWOBHM and revivified NWOBHM just doesn’t play around here; there are MAYBE three people on staff who would’ve even listened to that.

My opinion on the Angel Witch album: it was very good. I hope they keep going. It did not make my top 20 but could easily have taken 15-20 depending on my mood that day.

“NWOBHM and revivified NWOBHM just doesn’t play around here; there are MAYBE three people on staff who would’ve even listened to that.” – Correcting that inexcusable flaw in the staff’s tastes should be IO’s first order of business for 2013.

I hate to be the guy that picks on something like this, which obviously takes a lot of work and is clearly all a matter of opinion. However, I must echo TheWolf on one thing:

No Evoken?

I don’t mean to say you’re “wrong.” (Even though every fiber of my being says you are.) It’s just so incredibly shocking. I think with a list like this you want to shock people with a few of your picks, but to leave out something that fantastic . . . .

I second this. That it doesn’t show up anywhere on the list in total, let alone the top 10, is baffling to me. Not in a “how dare you!” sort of way, but just…how? How can it not be on there? In my opinion (I know, just mine), Evoken should be on this list before any inclusion of Baroness, Down, Huntress, Serpentine Path, Swans, Anhedonist, or Grave. I mean, not even a spot in the honorable mentions? Seriously?

“We saw more death/doom and funeral doom than ever before, and almost all of it was fucking gold (see: Evoken, Indesinence, Anhedonist, lots more).”

If it was such an obvious standout, and “fucking gold,” then how did it get left out of the actual list? Stupid, stupid reference here, but is this a Chris Daughtry effect (i.e., everyone thought other people would give it enough votes because it was a clear favorite, so no one actually voted for it themselves)?

Simply put… it didn’t get the votes. This list is not compiled as a list of what’s actually best. It’s a vote, which means it’s a list of what was popular amongst staff. We list 20 albums each that we liked. If you don’t get the votes, you don’t make the cut. That’s how the cookie crumbles.

Evoken made my list and Jo’s… and no one else’s. The intro reflects my thoughts on the year more than the collective hive-mind of the staff. I dug it a lot, but thought Indesinence and a few other records outshone it at the end of the day. For what it’s worth, Evoken clocked in at #76, not that the actual placing means anything other than only 2 people voted for it.

I understand the methodology, and it’s the most obvious methodology to use. But it also seems to prove the methodology doesn’t necessarily get the best results. Maybe mix it up next year?

Here’s an off-the-cuff idea: Everyone gets to pick only 10 albums. After the voting is compiled, forget the voting scores and distribute the list of the top 40 to the voters. Then everyone gets three votes to increase the placement of anything on the list, which they can use all for one album or distribute across three. (So, if an album is at number 10, they can single-handedly increase it to number 7). The final list would then be cut down to just the top 25. I don’t know if that’s better. Like I said, that’s off the cuff. It also makes it a lot more work initially, but then you only need to coordinate to get 25 blurbs.

OR, instead of that, maybe everyone could write a blurb decrying the list’s shortcomings after it comes out, a chance to redress injustices such as this. (I did my own list just this week and I’ve already realized I made an error of omission.)

I’m also curious about how many albums make the list despite not being in anyone’s top 10. Maybe a better solution is just this: everyone can vote for only 10. That way you avoid placing an album on the list because everyone thinks it’s “pretty good,” and you get more albums that a handful of people think are “truly great,” but don’t appeal to as wide an audience. I honestly don’t care if everyone thinks Album X is the 20th best of the year. I’d rather see everyone’s #1 pick. We all agree metal is not about what everyone kind of likes; it’s about what just a few of us think is fucking awesome.

Chris Rowella

Posted December 28, 2012 at 1:54 PM

I voted for Atra Mors too.

Scott

Posted December 28, 2012 at 2:17 PM

FMA, would a better solution perhaps be to publish contributors’ individual lists in addition to the vote results? That would allow you to simply review the lists of people whose tastes are similar to yours and see what they liked that you missed, and disregard everyone else’s. I can’t see how alternative voting methodologies are helpful, since by definition there’s no “wrong” result here.

i don’t think pallbearer sound all that much like warning, that really was my main fear going into the pallbearer record. i don’t like warning at all, it always had some weird feel to me, and then when years back on some forum someone said “warning sounds like christian grunge to me” it totally made sense. because it absolutely does, ever since i have gone as far as to call warning an awful awful band. overhyped and overrated, much like what people call pallbearer today. so it’s apples and oranges, some of them invisible some not so much. but yeah, in direct comparison i think those bands sound nothing a like.

also, we are only two years into this decade, lots of potential for albums being more overrated than S&E, so that’s a bit of an extreme statement there.

They sound exactly like Warning. But so what? Nobody else sounds like Warning other than 40 Watt Sun, for obvious reasons.

It’s not like there’s a thousand bands that sound like Warning.

Nick

Posted December 28, 2012 at 7:03 AM

You guys should give some consideration to cutting this list in half next year and adding a little meat to the blurbs. Since IO prides itself on intellectual discourse, pithy little two-sentence descriptions look very out of place. Also, 75 albums is wayyyy too much.

The shamefully ridiculous and goofy punk rawk speech that introduces “Parasite” on the Atriarch album just has me checking out before the real song even starts.

“Mankind’s quest for power has lead us to this end. A world teetering on the brink of destruction where smoke fills the sky and lies poison our minds. Sadly, the meaning of power has become corrupted and misconstrued. For without respect, it means nothing and without Love it means nothing.” And then Billie Joe Armstrong starts singing over Christian Death “riffs.”

Man…I’m listening to this Atriarch again this morning. These are the worst lyrics I’ve heard since the second Warrant (US) album. Seriously. I mean, I guess it has to be a total joke. Which would mean I’m too stupid to get it. If it’s a joke, it grows old very quickly. If it’s to be taken seriously, well then……

A lot of records sans riffs in this 75 and yet neither Nile, nor Wintersun could make the cut. I refuse to believe the future of metal is riffless. I understand the premium on originality. I understand the reaction against melody. I do not understand how sludge and grind are the worthwhile responses.

I too can’t understand how the future of metal is riffless. I however do NOT understand the reaction to melody. That just seems juvenile. It’s such an ignorant, adolescent, self-conscious reactive aesthetic choice.

I would like to hear music that modulates every four beats, traversing every note within five octaves, over the course of a three minutes song, rather than more godawful, boring twenty minute drone pieces with little kisses of “texture” to prove their merit.

I didn’t say I agreed with the reactionaries, only that I understand their position. I’d have put “Carolus Rex” in my top 20 and probably “Stalingrad” too. It was good, and somewhat surprising, to see “Into the Lair of Sun God” crack the Top 5.

I would give ANYTHING to be able to get into “Blood of Nations”/”Stalingrad”-era Accept. They were one of my absolute favorite bands in high school. 1979-1986 from that band is beyond reproach to me. Who’s-his-what’s voice just makes me cringe, though. I’ve tried to warp my perspective, shift the phenomenological template, crush the paradigm, and it does no good. I hate that guys vocals!

pseudoymous

Posted December 29, 2012 at 3:12 AM

It took me several listens–and a live performance–to to, uh, accept the new guy, but I now find him solid if unremarkable. Plus, as colorful a character as Udo was/is, it’s not like he’s Bruce Dickinson or Rob Halford. It’s all about the riffs, dude. Give it another shot! You can do it. I believe in you.

The One True Street-Jammer

Posted December 28, 2012 at 7:29 AM

@Chris Dalton I’ve been leading that particular Light Brigade charge for 1.5 years. Chances of succcess are alproximately those of the real life Light Brigade’s.

@AstralZombie I hate that pallbearer record. It makes me so :'( that I want to listen to funeral doom.

IDK…I think it’s actually pretty refreshing to hear a Bay Area punk band have actual punk themes lyrically rather than continuing to acquiesce to Nazi black metal tropes or pretending to live in a forest of blackened, Cascadian gloom…just a bit of perspective!

@Chris Dalton GET OUT OF MY HEAD, SIR. I’ve been thinking of writing a post about how as metal ages, it seems to push further and further towards being as Xtreem!!! As possible. Genres like NWOBHM, power/speed metal, and 80s metal (not hair metal) are marginalized. It seems like they’re the old uncles that embarrass everybody at the family reunion. Just shove ‘em in the corner and keep ‘em away from the young ‘uns lest they get some falsetto or fantasy lyrics on people.

Lest I come off as a total curmudgeon, I like djent, deathcore, etc. Nevertheless I do not understand why the High Roller roster is an embarrassment.

1. Who says you as a listener is required to take as authority the information provided on bogs such as IO etc as a correct represenation of the contemporary metal scene. In my view, so-called “extreme” metal gets very little attention in mainstream fora. Therefore it tends to appear to be over represented in the niches and fringes. A bit of a balancing act.

The whole “extreme” vs melody thing is a bit played out now too. I mean there is so much music out there and it continues to multiply, a quick surf around bandcamp can yield results from “meh” to “holy shit” in the space of a few clicks. That one doesn’t see the melody out there says more about the listener than the state of metal. It might even say more about the metal blogging community. Too many blinkers and too much tunnel vision. And anyway, didn’t you see Dawnbringer on the list?

2. For a brief exploration of “extremity” in music, pop over to my blog:

Finally (a “PS”?) there seems to be a thematic running through IO at the moment about “intelligence/intellect” and metal. This is an interesting but in my view, limited optic through which to interpret and enjoy metal. There is so much dumb fun to be had but why conceptualise it as other too or incompatible with more cerebral enjoyent/genres etc?

Don’t read the word so literally. It’s not about their direct competition within progressive black metal but rather their general ability to reduce pretty much every other heavy band to rubble. After I finish a Krallice album, I have to switch genres to create an even playing field. No one else comes close, for me.

I’ll also add to the echo chamber and say that 30 records on this list could’ve EASILY been left off and replaced by Evoken’s Atra Mors… Definitely the largest, most curious oversight of this entire list.

I love folks commenting on hating peoples comments about these lists…these are sheer taste maker ego strokes fishing for controversy, so take it easy partner! Otherwise, maybe avoid participating or reading them in the future…if you hate it so much.

I participate in these features because, as the roughly 50 comments this post has received so far can attest, readers expect them and love to flip out over them. That doesn’t mean I personally think that they’re terribly productive.

Their only real value to me is to point me to albums I might have otherwise missed. In fact, it was only because of your “weird-ass black metal” list last year that I finally checked out Aosoth’s III, which instantly became and remains one of my favorite albums ever. And I’m not sure I would have discovered Oranssi Pazuzu without that list either, considering I haven’t seen them mentioned anywhere since.

Glad to hear it. I actually have an “albums we should’ve covered in detail, but didn’t” year-end feature coming up (Monday, maybe?). Hopefully it’ll serve the exact function you’re describing.

Speaking of: the Icelandic black metal band Svartidauði didn’t make my upcoming coulda-woulda-shoulda post, but if I’d done a weird-ass black metal list this year, they definitely would’ve featured prominently. If you loved that Aosoth album (and if you enjoy Wrest’s vocals in Leviathan), you’ll probably dig this too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_I5PcOr4a40

wherewolf

Posted December 28, 2012 at 12:54 PM

That track kicks ass. I’ve seen their name mentioned a few times this year, but it was well before the album was due out in the US. I still can’t seem to find it for sale anywhere, but according to the Daemon Worship website, a digital release is coming in early 2013. I saved a link to remind myself to keep checking back.

Thanks for the tip!

wherewolf

Posted December 28, 2012 at 1:05 PM

P.S. Just discovered that the CD is available from the Daemon Worship Bandcamp page:

But maybe “unbelievably uneven in a qualitative sense” fits better than disjointed…either way, there’s an impeccable amount of mediocrity overall…some folks just have bad taste and should really only contribute to Chips And Beer, just they way I see it…ghaaa!

If Chips & Beer did a list I’m sure I’d at least like 50% or more of their choices, which I’ve almost never found to be the case with any marginally mainstream-Extreme Metal publication (other than Terrorizer).

I counted it up. 17/75 releases on IO did I actually enjoy this year. 20/75 last year. 13/40 releases on Decibel this year. 11/40 last year and 14/40 in 2010.

There’s not a whole lot of resources with at least the level of professionalism here. In terms of the average features (interviews, album reviews, metal subject/culture) I enjoy about 25% of it and at least another 25-50% I don’t bother reading. If I had to pay to read IO I probably wouldn’t because it’d likely not be worth it for me.

dunkelheit

Posted December 28, 2012 at 11:42 AM

most disappointing top 10 i’ve come across. some people should be cut from your staff or something. not worthy.

Great to see Krallice ranked so high, finally! Would’ve been nice if you gave them the number 1 spot – since Pallbrarer are great, but that album isn’t all it’s cracked up to be – and Converge are … whatever.

I didn’t listen to ANY of this crap on any of these lists (this website or others) really at all, nor do I really care…the older I get, the more I enjoy squeezing into my time machine to get to the late 60’s/70’s rock/proto metal era shit. So much I never/have yet to discover from then (sigh). I like my cubbyhole. Fuck the future.

That reminds me of a great story a friend once told me. She was listening to her metro area Rock station and they were playing this brand-new album. It was by some new band from England called…get this stupid name…Iron Maiden. The ridiculous name of the record was, “Killers.” The played the first couple of songs and continually made cracks about what a bunch of retarded noise it was from a bunch of kids who couldn’t even play their instruments.

Album that was way too slept on this year: Diskord – Dystopics ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9u3pzGdFXg ) The name makes it sound like they would be d-beat, but not so. They scratch an itch that is also well-serviced by the likes of Gorguts and Stargazer.

That being said, people need to stop getting their panties in a wad when someone’s taste differs from theirs. As several have already pointed out, why are you even reading this blog if you hold it in such low esteem?

Great job on the list guys! I love these things because they help me to find great albums that I may have missed otherwise.

Gonna stay on my soapbox for a minute, just to say that I’m no longer even remotely enticed by the prospect of listening to 50 new metal albums in a year. You’d have to pay me! Music isn’t necessarily best experienced as a consumerist twitch like collecting trading cards or sampling fancy microbrews ya know. Look to your immediate surroundings to find what’s good and new and worthwhile. Listen to what you’ve got already, and as someone on the above list once said, you can always kick it up to 45 RPM if it’s not working out for you.

I guess if a band was even on everyone’s list (probably not in this case), but only ranked at 19 or 20 then it might not show up on here. So I suppose it’s just a matter that no one had it in their top 10.

I’ve never been the biggest Converge fan, but I have to admit something about that album I really like. They may be “whiney” or whatever, but music comes from emotion and they’re one of the best at conveying that.

Plus, they’ve been around for 20+ years and have remained relevant. That’s impressive to me, especially for the genre(s) they fall in.